There aren't that many supplements that you can take that can decrease your risk of death more than 10%. But one of them has been shown to do exactly that. What's more, you can buy it at any health food store.

A new study out of Italy shows that anyone who wants to avoid a heart attack should be taking this essential nutrient.

The researchers looked at 160 men and women between the ages of 39 and 86 years. All of these people had one thing in common. They had just recently checked out of the hospital after having had a myocardial infarction. Myocardial infarction is the ten-dollar term for heart attack.

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The researchers wanted to learn how helpful it might be to these patients to give them l-carnitine.

L-carnitine is a "combination" amino acid made up of l-lysine and methionine. Your body makes l-carnitine in the liver and in the kidneys. And you can get ample amounts in meats. The heart cells contain particularly high levels of l-carnitine.

This is because l-carnitine is essential for proper fat metabolism, which is the primary form of energy metabolism in heart cells. Studies have shown that patients who have a disorder of the heart cells known as cardiomypathy have a deficiency of l-carnitine.

And there's plenty of reason to suspect that because of their genetic differences, certain people may not be able to synthesize as much l-carnitine as their heart requires. These people would be set up for all kinds of heart disease. That's why the authors of this study wanted to see what happens when these patients took l-carnitine.

They randomly gave the l-carnitine supplements to half of the patients. They gave the participants of this group 4 grams a day. And they gave it in addition to any heart medications they might have been on. They followed both groups for the next 12 months to see what happened. The results were truly astounding.

The l-carnitine group had a statistically significant improvement in heart rate and blood pressure. They also had less angina and fewer incidences of arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms). But the most important statistic of all was the death rate. The death rate in the patients without the supplement was 12.5%, whereas the death rate in the l-carnitine group was only 1.2%. That's 10 times less!

The researchers also noted that most of the deaths in the patients not taking the l-carnitine were due to repeat heart attacks. That was not the case with those taking the l-carnitine. They died from something else.

So should you take l-carnitine? Well, if you have had a heart attack the answer is obvious. But even if you haven't had one, how can you be sure that you won't? You can't. That's why I take 2,000 mg of l-carnitine every day. I recommend you do the same. Heart disease is still the number one killer today. Along with a healthy diet and proper exercise, taking l-carnitine supplements seems like an awfully good idea to me.